Kebbi - The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has suspended its plan to embark on indefinite strike in Kebbi, over delay in the payment of salary to primary school teachers.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state chapter of the union threatened to embark on an indefinite strike over non-payment of accumulated promotions and leave grants to teachers.
Malam Aliyu Dallami, the state Chairman of the union, told NAN on Monday in Birnin Kebbi that the strike was suspended pending the outcome of an exercise being conducted by local government councils.
He said the union would wait for the outcome of the exercise, which is expected to clarify issues of payment of leave grants and promotion arrears being disputed by the councils.
``The verification will ensure that all dues to teachers, especially for promotions and leave grants, are paid," Dallami said.
He urged teachers to be patient and cooperate fully to ensure success of the exercise, adding that officials of the union would be involved in the exercise to ensure that none of its members was victimised.
Dallami advised teachers whose names were not included in the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage to participate in the exercise.
He said the union was expecting the state government to inform the union what it was doing to rectify the anomalies.
``We are hopeful the money will be approved.
``The NUT will not support payment to ghost workers, but would not allow genuine members to be denied their entitlements," the chairman said.
He expressed concern over the decision of the local government chairmen to reduce the number of teachers on their pay roll.
``That will be a disservice to the state, especially considering the fact that out of the 30,000 teachers required only 17,000 have been employed," Dallami said.
NAN